"Asian Stocks" Nikkei fell 1,790 points or 3.4% in half a day, hitting a nearly three-month low, with heavy selling pressure on industrial, metal, and shipping stocks

Japanese stocks significantly fell this morning (23rd), as the market worried about the escalation of the US-Iran conflict, leading to a spread of risk aversion. The rise in oil prices also triggered inflation concerns. The Nikkei average index opened down 903 points and the decline widened, dropping as much as 2,683 points or 5% to a low of 50,688 points, the lowest intraday level since December 30 of last year, with the half-day decline narrowing to 1,790 points or 3.4%, closing at 51,582 points. The Tokyo Stock Exchange's growth market 250 index futures triggered a circuit breaker.

In the artificial intelligence and semiconductor sectors, SoftBank (9984.JP) fell 2.2%, Tokyo Electron (8035.JP) and Kioxia (285A.JP) dropped 3% and 3.4%, Advantest (6857.JP) and Disk (6146.JP) fell 5.5% and 6.4%, while Renesas Electronics (6920.JP) dropped 8.2%. In the wire sector, Furukawa Electric (5801.JP) and Fujikura (5803.JP) fell 4.1% and 3.4%, and Sumitomo Electric (5802.JP) dropped 6.3%.

In the heavy industry sector, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.JP), Kawasaki Heavy Industries (7012.JP), and IHI (7013.JP) fell between 6.2% and 8.1%. In the metals sector, JX Metals (5016.JP) dropped 9.2%, while Sumitomo Metal Mining (5713.JP) and Mitsui Mining & Smelting (5706.JP) each fell 6.8%. In the rare earth concept, Mitsui Ocean Development (6269.JP) dropped 9.1%. In the trading companies sector, Marubeni (8002.JP) and Mitsui & Co. (8031.JP) fell 6% and 5.2%. In the shipping sector, Nippon Yusen (9101.JP), Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (9104.JP), and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (9107.JP) fell between 6.8% and 7.4%.

In other stocks, Fast Retailing (9983.JP) fell 2.6%, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.JP) and Mizuho Financial Group (8411.JP) dropped 4.2% and 3.6%, while Tokyo Electric Power Company (9501.JP) fell 5.3%.

The USD/JPY exchange rate is reported at 159.55